Michigan State rising senior quarterback Andrew Maxwell has shouldered a great deal of criticism, but he has maintained a positive attitude and is ready to lead the Spartans once more.Josh Slagter | MLive.com

EAST LANSING — Andrew Maxwell has the scars of a starting quarterback coming off a 7-6 season.

Not all of them show on Michigan State's returning captain, but they are there.

Some came in the form of boos from the crowd, others negative columns or Twitter attacks on the Spartans high-IQ football player.

Maxwell didn't let it change him, and he's ready to handle more should he win the Spartans' starting quarterback job this spring and lead the team into next season.

"You don't practice that in spring ball, or fall camp, it's something that comes with the week-in and week-out losses,'' Maxwell said, discussing the thick skin he grew as a first-year starter last season. "There's no such thing as going in there with criticism experience.

"There were a couple of points where I thought, `this is more than I expected, this is something I wasn't expecting,' I didn't know how to prepare for it,'' Maxwell said. "But after one of those (losses), I was able to say this is reality, and it comes with the job description.

"It's not going to go away. The only thing I can control is how I respond to it.''

Maxwell has removed himself from Twitter, for starters.

Bu he's maintained the same sort of confidence that enabled him to be named a team captain last season, even though he's in a heated competition for the starting quarterback duties.

"Competition does nothing but make you better,'' Maxwell said. "When you have people pushing you, it makes you strive to be better.

"When you're in a competition, you can't afford to just come out there and not give everything you have and say, `Man, I'm just not feeling it today, I'm going to just go through the motions.'

"You don't have that luxury, so every day, every period, every rep has to be game-like, and it has to be like your job is on the line.''